Members of the American Philosophical Association, take note: One feature of the new APA website is that people can create a member profile and join “Groups” including Women in Philosophy (at the bottom of the Groups page). (You might need to be a member to access this…but to get to it after you login, go to “Membership” menu and on the pull-down “Member Groups”.) Also, people can suggest new groups. Thanks, Sally Haslanger, for writing us to suggest we call this to APA members’ attentions!
Day: July 15, 2013
Comments?
Dear feminist philosophers. I have just lost a post. The point of it was really to ask if you had comments on a Guardian column by Gary Younge. So let me just ask what you think
Appeals for calm in the wake of such a verdict raise the question of what calm there can possibly be in a place where such a verdict is possible. Parents of black boys are not likely to feel calm. Partners of black men are not likely to feel calm. Children with black fathers are not likely to feel calm. Those who now fear violent social disorder must ask themselves whose interests are served by a violent social order in which young black men can be thus slain and discarded.
But while the acquittal was shameful it was not a shock. It took more than six weeks after Martin's death for Zimmerman to be arrested and only then after massive pressure both nationally and locally. Those who dismissed this as a political trial (a peculiar accusation in the summer of Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden) should bear in mind that it was politics that made this case controversial.
…
"Fucking punks," Zimmerman told the police dispatcher that night. "These assholes. They always get away."So true it's painful. And so predictable it hurts.
More fun news about people you can shoot in the US
From Think Progress:
A Texas jury acquitted a man for the murder of a woman he hired as an escort, after his lawyers claimed he was authorized to use deadly force because she refused sex.
Ezekiel Gilbert shot Lenora Ivie Frago in the neck on Christmas Eve, after she denied his requests for sex and wouldn’t return the $150 he had paid her, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Under Texas law, an individual is authorized to use deadly force to “retrieve stolen property at night,” and Gilbert’s lawyers cited that provision as justification for Gilbert’s action, reasoning that Frago had stolen $150 from him by taking his money without delivering sex. In a police interview played for jurors, Gilbert “never mentioned anything about theft,” a detective told the San Antonio Express-News. Frago, who was 21, was critically injured and died several months later.
That’s it. If anyone needs me I’ll be hiding under my bed with a stack of comic books trying not to read anything on the internet ever again. Because actual news is just too damn depressing.
Feminist Philosophers 